LSE Group looks to build blockchain-powered trading venue: Financial Times

Quick Take

The London Stock Exchange has been exploring the potential for using blockchain to improve the trading process for traditional assets, an executive said.

The London Stock Exchange Group is doubling down on its plan to develop a blockchain-powered trading venue, a company executive told the Financial Times.

Murray Roos, head of capital markets at the LSE Group, told the UK media outlet that it has asked Julia Hoggett, head of the London Stock Exchange, to lead the project.

Roos said that the company has been exploring the potential of blockchain but made it clear that the exchange group was not building anything that would support crypto assets.

“The idea is to use digital technology to make a process that is slicker, smoother, cheaper and more transparent... and to have it regulated,” Roos continued, adding that the initiative aims to improve the trading process for traditional assets.

Asset tokenization

The LSE is far from the only traditional financial markets operator exploring potential use cases for blockchain technology.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in March, in a letter to shareholders, that the tokenization of asset classes could offer the prospect of driving efficiencies in capital markets, "shortening value chains and improving cost and access for investors."

In July, the Bank for International Settlements said in a report that the tokenization of claims on real-world assets is one way traditional finance and crypto could work together. The organization added that this could result in the growth of crypto itself "as new money gets channeled into such tokenized assets."